The Immortal Protoman
by Oreo Stories
Summary: Blues, though the oldest robot master ever, has outlived every other robot. His fathers ensured that he would not die or run out of power, and the Light Capsules have kept him in tip-top shape. These are his thoughts as he saw his two youngest brothers, X and Zero, protect the world.
1. Chapter 1: X

**The Mega Man franchise and any other series, franchises, intellectual properties, etc. do not belong to me. This is a non-profit fan-work, and earns me no money.**

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Many years had passed since the Wily Wars. Almost nothing of that time remained, save some of doctor Light's sturdiest creations. His final son, X, was a hero, like Rock before him, and the good doctor's capsules housed his mind, allowing him to create new armors and weapons.

One creation, however, had survived without being hidden away, at least by Light. The first son of Light and Wily, Blues, remained. His father's capsules maintained him, though he wished he did not need it.

Blues kept himself busy by watching his brother grow. He would occasionally destroy a weak but threatening maverick himself, leaving the hunters mystified. Eventually, he became a legend: The Crimson Ghost. He was said to appear and disappear in an instant, able to destroy a reploid in one shot. In truth, he had gained the ability to turn invisible from one of the early mavericks, and his buster was only so powerful because his power source was a cross between nuclear fusion and a bassnium reactor. Still, he let the rumors fly, if only to discourage maverick behavior; reploids may not be fully equal to humans, but only unofficially, as certain ethnicities were in twenty-first-century America. Maverick behavior would only serve to ruin the peace Rock had fought and died for, and he would not see his brother's only wish be soiled and broken.

Unfortunately, he was still not enough to combat the maverick rebellions that happened like clockwork, just as the Wily Wars had. He suspected Wily had a hand in this still, centuries after that madman's death. He had no way of proving it, though, and no one to tell, regardless. Either way, he was content with his new way of life…

Though that 'Wiel' person seemed awfully suspicious.


	2. Chapter 2: Zero

Blues hated when he was right. Wiel had become Wily 2.0, or perhaps _was_ Wily, and he used the Mother Elf, an AI so powerful it broke reality itself, to try and conquer the world. The Maverick Virus, once controlled by Sigma, who had _some_ semblance of morals under that insanity, was now controlled by someone with no qualms against killing everything he touched, leaving nothing but scorched earth and broken metal behind him. This war was not the Maverick Wars, not the Wily Wars, but true, devastating war, where one side only sought utter destruction. It finally ended when X sacrificed himself to seal away the Maverick Virus once and for all, his body sealed away forever and his mind drifting through cyberspace.

A scientist who had studied X's readings, Ciel, created a reploid to try and take his place. Unfortunately, the copy had only X's mission and burdens, not his ethics or memories. He decided that humans were more important than reploids, and began killing reploids off to preserve the dwindling energy. Ciel thankfully had not intended this, and allied herself with a resistance group while developing a new method of energy generation. Though she eventually succeeded, Wiel, who had taken power in the last city on the planet, struck once again.

Zero, Wily's final creation, led the resistance to victory every time, but this did nothing to restore the planet. Entire continents were poisonous to human and reploid alike, and the few areas that could potentially recover were unable.

Light's capsules were still around, and Protoman was able to bring it samples of technology so that he, too, could be upgraded. He now resembled a teenager, perhaps eighteen if he were human. His buster was on-par with X's, now, and he had finally caved in and had himself outfitted with wall-sliding and dashing capabilities. The few people who witnessed him believed him to be Zero, and he did nothing to stop these rumors, either- the resistance needed the support, and he did not wish to be known.

In the final hour of the war, Zero and Wiel succumbed to the same fate: death in the burning crash of Ragnarok. Ciel discovered their remains, and a portion of Wiel remained in a chunk of metal imbued with the last copy of the Maverick Virus. Using that as a template, she hoped to recreate X, Zero, and the Four Guardians, this time fully instead of bad copies. All she could get were sentient hunks of metal that transformed into armor for those they deemed worth; Ciel, as their creator, was the only one, at least at the moment.

Humans and Reploids were once again equals, and the government created in Wiel and X's absence enacted laws to fully equalize the two. Reploids would now have built-in limited lifespans equal to a human's, and humans would have cybernetic implants that gave them abilities similar to the average reploid.

In the end, this was what Light had wanted. After so many years of war, after the planet itself was rendered inhospitable, human and machine were made truly equal. X, now a mere spirit, was elated, and Zero happily watched beside him.


End file.
